PS4 – The Biggest Let Down and The Highest Praise

The date has finally passed and Sony announced their next-gen console, the PlayStation 4. Fans around the world had waited in anticipation to the big announcement during a press conference in New York; that conference proved to house some immense statements. Now that the PS4 has been officially confirmed rumors will come to a halt and facts should start flowing in.

The PS4 press conference was watched by hundreds of thousands of fans, each with their own opinion. There is no doubt that what was seen during the conference was very impressive, especially compared to their current-gen system. It is clear that PlayStation 4 intends on standing tall against its competitors. Most of what was seen in the press conference proves Sony is going to be a top contender but some was a bit off. There were surprises that took players off guard and announcements that made people take a step back and think, ‘What are you thinking?’

With that being said, we believe the Sony February 20th press conference was a huge success with some of what was said to be praised and other things we heard to be worried about.

First off, Sony did one major thing right. Put all the outstanding specs aside for one moment and think about the press conference as a whole. What Sony did was amazing to a hardcore gaming crowd; they stayed true to themselves and offered gamers games and not gimmicks. Before the announcement was made official it was a worry in hardcore players minds that next-gen stood for a change in the way we game. That was diffidently a worry but what Sony did was confirmed to their hardcore fans that, yes gaming is changing but that change is beneficial.

The changes that the PS4 brought forth to the industry were changes that will only making gaming as we know it progress. We aren’t going to be forced into an impractical experience like the motion controls of the Wii or becoming the controller like the Kinect but we are going to be able to sit down, hold a controller and experience games like never before.

The social aspects that are being added to the PS4 are a few steps up from what they have with the PS3 and a step up from what is currently seen on the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 has always been the front running when it came to social aspects in gaming. PlayStation has now stepped up and let players know that the experience they can expect to get on their 360 is not only being matched by the next-gen hardware but it is being beat. They are standing tall and showing players that the need that seemed to be once neglected with the PS3 is now being fulfilled greatly in the next-gen consoles battle.

While as most of the press conference posed to be of great delight there are a few things to be concerned about while thinking of the PS4. First off, the specs that were seen are nothing short of amazing but that doesn’t mean that what was seen cannot be matched by Microsoft. As nothing has been confirmed for the next-gen Xbox yet it still can be assumed that they will do something to keep up with what Sony is presenting in the terms of actual hardware. This is more of a statement than a disappointment though.

The one disappointment about what was seen during the PS4 announcement revolved around the release date. While we know that the PS4 has been in development for far longer than the rumored announcement started/ ect a 2013 release date almost seems rushed. Of course players want to get their hands on the console as quick as possible after they learn exactly what it is but it is important to know that timing is key. Rushing to get a console out on the shelves isn’t the best idea but waiting hyping and showing off what you got is the main way to catch attention. Who knows, maybe the release date is this way for a reason. It just brings worry to players that it’s too soon. All in all, the announcement was great we just hope nothing seems rushed once players get their hands on the upcoming console.

This was Literally (and when I say literally I mean it in the literal not figurative sense) Sony’s best press conference in years. They focused on what the core gamers are looking for games! The new controller looks beautiful and added everything gamers wanted; headphone jack, improved grip, sticks, d-pad, and triggers. (Aside from the share and options buttons [seriously bring back start and select])
In fact the only thing that most people I’ve talked to were disappointed in, was in regard’s to 3 games:
Agent
Final Fantasy Versus XIII
The Last Guardian

After talking with many of my “Hardcore PlayStation Gamer” friends and post seeing the PlayStation 4 announcement, we have come up with a list of concerns we have. It would be greatly appreciated it you could pass this list on to the proper channels.

1. Removal of the Start and Select buttons – While we all agree that the new controller is stunning and beautifully designed, one of the smaller problems we had with it was the lack of start and select. “Options” is not sufficient in attempting to play any old game on the console. Playing older games threw Gaikai or otherwise might prove to be impossible without these buttons. Storngly recomend you change “options” back to Start and Select.

2. Backward Compatibility – We cannot fathom why this was not important to Sony, as it was a major issue with the PS3 launch. (Most of us have kept the original PlayStation 3 for that reason) If you cannot include the hardware to run PS1, PS2, and PS3 games please allow the PS4 to obtain the software emulate them. With 8 GB of memory, this should not be a problem. Gaikai is nice, but with large collections of PS1, PS2 and PS3 games, we would like to use them on the new system.

Or if nothing else, release a high end SKU of the PS4 with backwards compatibility, we are sure many of your loyal fans would appreciate (and purchase) this.

2.5 Along with the “backwards compatibility” section, we believe it would be a smart move for Sony to allow the Dualshock 3 controllers to connect with the PS4 as well. This would be great for anyone converting from a PlayStation 3 to a PlayStation 4 and does not have the money to purchase extras as well as a sign of good faith from the PlayStation brand.

3. Social Features – While posting your trophies or connecting to Facebook and various other social mediums throgh PlayStation are good ideas, please make all of these optional. Many of the core gamers have no interest in these features and many, myself included do not use social networking at all. Thefore if it were mandaoty we could not play games.

4. New Friends Methodology – While we found the idea of expanding upon the friends page interesting, we appreciated the privacy that PS3 provided. DO NOT FORCE users to create accounts with their picture and name. Once again, we stress, please make this optional.

5. New Operating System – The XMB was perfect. Logically laid out with every application categorized into a sub category. Because of this, it was both intuitive and easy to use. While we only received a quick glimpse, the new operating system, seems to make far less sense. Please allow customization so the more logically minded among us can use the new system with ease as well. Perhaps an optional interface, closer to the PSVITA’s?

6. Camera – While this new Camera could be used for some interesting moments and ideas in gaming. DO NOT make it mandatory. Many of us do not nor have we ever liked motion or camera based games. Please DO NOT require a camera to use the new controllers.

7. Intuitive Downloads – Many of us, like to select games with no pattern or complete randomness, and in doing so do not like games to be downloaded for us. This idea is a good one, but once again it should be optional.

8. Ideas – With 8 Gigs of memory the PlayStation 4 is the perfect time for cross game voice chat, PSN ID tagged controllers, and a system that allows users to play music at all time along with the game they are playing. Doing this would help PlayStation, to also become a hub for entertainment.

P.S. it would be really cool if the “PS” button on the center of the Dualshock 4 light up red. This would make it more iconic.

In conclusion, we have come to the consensus that while we enjoy many of the new PlayStation features we hope that you will consider adding some more and that you leave some optional. Aside from that you should know: keep up the great work! The specs are spectacular, we couldn’t have asked for a better controller (almost) and the game line up looks awesome.